It's Cold But Who Cares!!! Ashes, Centuries and Chana Daal Gosht!

It's cold and raining again in Melbourne but who cares??? It's a great day for me and Australia!  Our own lovely lads beat England by a crushing 267 runs thanks to the work of Mike Hussey, Mitchell Johnson and Shane Watson!  And then Ryan Harris finished off the English by taking six yes that's 6 scalps for 47 runs!  Well done, chaps!  It looks like Australia's been eating some great pakistani food and is now back in the cricket business!  And that's how things should be!  Right on!

And in the South Africa/India test that's going on at Centurion, the Indians have clawed their way back into the game by scoring a great big 454 runs in their second innings.  They've got 2 wickets left in hand, and lag behind the South Africans by 30 runs now.  But before you get all excited, you must remember that the Saffies still have another innings to play!   However, this has been a most exciting test:  Sachin Tendulkar, the Little Master, scored his 50th Test Century yesterday.  Good on ya, Sachin!  Dhoni, the India captain, scored a fabulous 90 runs as well.  Rain forced the end of play yesterday, but day 5 is going to be interesting.  Man, I LOVE TEST CRICKET!!!  You never know what's going to happen! 

I also want to add that Hashim Amla on the Saffy-side had some great catches yesterday.  He's insanely well-coordinated and a great fielder.  You can call him a match-winner just by his fielding!  Good on ya!

Now let's get to the food.  This is a dish I've already shown in my column at SportPulse, but I thought i'd publish it here as well. Chana Daal Gosht is a rich yet well balanced chickpea and meat salaan which provides energy due to the protein and carbohydrates.   Goat meat does tend to work best in this dish; it's milder in flavour than lamb, is easier to digest than beef, and has fewer calories than chicken.  In Canada, you can find goat meat in the frozen section at Superstore or at a Halal butcher.
 Give this dish a go, and you'll see how right I am when I say that pakistani food is the best food to get you back into business...no matter what your business is!   Now let's go teach that kitchen a lesson and let's get busy.

Chana Daal Gosht

Ingredients

1 kg of lamb, beef or goat, cut into 3cm cubes

500 gr chana daal (chickpeas, use whole or split)

2 large, finely sliced onions

5-7 cloves of garlic, crushed to a paste

3 cm piece of ginger, crushed to a paste

1 cinnamon stick

3 black cardamom pods

5 cloves

2 bay leaves

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

1 teaspoon turmeric

1 teaspoon or more lal mirch

Sliced green chilies

Salt

Wash and soak the chana daal in some cold water for at least 1 hour.  Drain.

Heat a little oil in a pan, and fry the onions until they’re brown and a little crispy.

Add the garlic and ginger, and stir-fry a couple of minutes.  Careful not to burn the garlic!

Stir in the meat, add the cinnamon, black cardamom pods, cloves and bay leaves.

Now you’ll “bhunna” the mix: when the meat mixture starts to stick to the bottom of the pan and turns brown, sprinkle water on it and stirfry to avoid burning.  Remember, this procedure lifts all of that flavour from the bottom of the pan and incorporates it into the gravy. 

When the meat mixture sticks again, add water and stirfry again.  Repeat this step about 3 or 4 times, until the meat is well browned and fragrant.  You’ll notice that the onions and spices have changed texture and have now formed a lovely dark gravy.

Add the chana daal and stir on low heat for about 10 minutes.

Add the cuminseeds, turmeric, lal mirch and salt.

Add water, cover and simmer for around 30 minutes.  Give in an occasional stir so it doesn’t stick.

Garnish with chilies.

So that's the way you get back into business, just like the Australians!  Let's hope they continue with their brilliance and give us a great show at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on December 26!  Have a good one today.

Happy Eating, and Happy Cricket!

a quick note:  What was the deal with Paul Harris and his ugly sausage tongue?  He had his tongue out for about two flipping hours !and the camera-man kept on doing close-ups.  Keep it in your head, dude!